Where to Search for Software Prior-Art?

I'm not sure if this is helpful - but Google has a pretty decent patent search feature: http://www.google.com/patents

I'd write out a description of what the software does, and do Google exact-match searches for several key phrases from that description.

I'd also try to think of 3-5 word descriptions for the software, do broad Google searches, and see if what turns up has any relation / overlap.

And finally, I'd ask within the Slashdot IRC channel; probably the best source of internet old-timers who can tell you if they've seen a particular type of software before.

You could also just write up a general description and ask on some social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, but you may find that IEEE Computer Society may have some societies that would be helpful, but this is such a broad area, since so much can be patented, and then stretched to include things that were not originally written.

Hopefully, Bileski will fix this should the US Supreme Court rule as the Appeals court did.

One problem you will encounter is that there is so much in the pipeline that is in progress, but won't show up on a search, yet, which is why asking in a general forum would be useful, to get some feedback as people are trying to determine if a patent might be stretched.

In addition to Google Patents, noted above, I'd look at the more general Google Scholar search at http://scholar.google.com/